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    Hard drive Image, which software?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by germancasaretto, Dec 28, 2006.

  1. germancasaretto

    germancasaretto Notebook Geek NBR Reviewer

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    Hi everybody,

    I've just finished installing and configuring a brand new Toshiba A100-139 and I want to make an image of my entire hard drive and save it into a DVD.
    If I ever need to re-format the hard drive, I only need to boot from this DVD, erase hard drive, and copy the image.

    So, I need a software that can backup the entire hard drive into an image, copy taht image to a DVD, make that dvd booteable and then restore it to the hard drive.

    Is there any software able to do all this? I've been reading about Norton Ghost and Norton Save & Restore, but I can't decide which one, if any, will be useful to me.

    Thanks,

    German
     
    germancasaretto, Dec 28, 2006
    #1
  2. jim6172

    jim6172 Notebook Evangelist

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    jim6172, Dec 28, 2006
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  3. SF49ers

    SF49ers Notebook Enthusiast

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    I believe you can do this with Gparted Live which is free.
     
    SF49ers, Dec 28, 2006
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  4. Boneyard

    Boneyard Notebook Enthusiast

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    I like Acronis also. The trial download saved my butt about a year and a half ago. I bought it and have been happy with it ever since. :D
     
    Boneyard, Dec 28, 2006
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  5. Arla

    Arla Notebook Deity

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    While I liked the look and feel of Acronis, there are FAR too many posts out there about how images it's created don't work, or suddenly fail.

    I've, personally, never had any issues with any of my Ghost images.
     
    Arla, Dec 28, 2006
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  6. jetstar

    jetstar Notebook Deity

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    I've used both Acronis and Ghost, and have not had an issue with either.
     
    jetstar, Dec 28, 2006
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  7. Boneyard

    Boneyard Notebook Enthusiast

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    If you take the time to have your image verified after it is created the chances of it being bad are nil. My full image consists of nine 4 GB files and one 3.5 GB file and I have never had a problem with Acronis restoring it perfectly. Done it twice in the last year.
     
    Boneyard, Dec 28, 2006
    #7
  8. germancasaretto

    germancasaretto Notebook Geek NBR Reviewer

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    Using Acronis, how can you restore back your image?
    Does the DVD can be made booteable? Or I must mount my hard drive in another computer and do it from there??

    Thanks for all your answers!
    Happy new year!
     
    germancasaretto, Dec 29, 2006
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  9. Boneyard

    Boneyard Notebook Enthusiast

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    When you install Acronis or the first time you run the program it asks you to make a boot CD.

    After you have the boot CD you can do your backup image to DVD or hard drive. When you want to restore the image you boot to the CD. Every time I have done it I have had to use the "Safe Mode" option. After the program loads to memory it will ask what backup you want to restore, where you want to restore it to and if you want to reformat the hard drive or partition.
     
    Boneyard, Dec 29, 2006
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  10. germancasaretto

    germancasaretto Notebook Geek NBR Reviewer

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    Thanks for the answer!
     
    germancasaretto, Dec 29, 2006
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